‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Plot Will Be Connected to ‘Avengers 3′

One of the reasons why Marvel's films are so successful is the way that they're all so beautifully connected to one another, with bits of plot and characters overlapping, and everything so meticulously planned. Here's another connection for you: director James Gunn says his upcoming 'Guardians of the Galaxy' will be connected to 'Avengers 3' -- you read that correctly: not 'Age of Ultron,' but the third film.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gunn said that 'Guardians of the Galaxy' isn't going to be floating off in space on its own with no ties to the other Marvel films: "We’re definitely connected to ‘Avengers 3,’" Gunn confirmed, and we can make a pretty educated guess as to how.

The primary villain in 'Guardians of the Galaxy' is Thanos, who was teased at the end of 'The Avengers.' Thanos has the Infinity Gauntlet, which holds the Infinity Stones, some of which we've already seen in other Marvel films, like the Tesseract from 'The Avengers' or the Aether from the recent 'Thor: The Dark World.' Once he collects all of the stones, he will hold dominion over the entire universe.

In 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' Thanos actually killed the parents of Gamora and Nebula, raising them as sisters, which makes the story more interesting as Gamora is fighting with the Guardians and Nebula is definitely still hanging out with her adopted daddy.

So what could this mean for 'Avengers 3'? Well, we know that Thanos will be featured in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' but that film could also be paving the way to make Thanos the major villain in 'Avengers 3,' as the Marvel films are basically doing their own version of the Infinity Gauntlet story right now. And since Nebula was involved in that story in the original comics, we're keeping our fingers crossed that maybe we'll see Karen Gillan in an 'Avengers' film or two.